Next story in Space

Three astronauts in orbit are getting into the World Cup spirit
on the International Space Station. The crewmembers are joining
with billions of soccer fans back on Earth to root for their
favorite teams in the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament, which
starts today (June 12) in Brazil. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman
and Steve Swanson created a
World Cup tribute video from space with European Space Agency
astronaut Alexander Gerst of Germany to send their well wishes to
people on Earth as the tournament kicks off.

In the video, posted on June 11, the astronauts play a bit of
microgravity soccer, kicking a small soccer ball around the
station's labs. Swanson seems to have mastered the bicycle kick,
performing quite a few of the topsy-turvy maneuvers with the ball
on the orbiting outpost. [ See
images of the World Cup stadiums in Brazil seen from space ]

"We want to wish all the teams and fans on the ground and in
Brazil a great World Cup,"
Gerst said during the video. "Have fun and have peaceful
games. May the best win."

The two NASA astronauts and Gerst will get a chance for a little
friendly competition when Germany and the United States face off
on June 26. The astronauts also plan to watch as many games as
possible, according to NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries.

"Have fun," Wiseman said during the video. "Play hard, and we'll
be watching on the International Space Station."

Space station crewmembers have celebrated the World Cup from
space before. During the last tournament in 2010, NASA astronaut
Tracy Caldwell Dyson and her fellow residents cheered on the
teams from space.

One Russian cosmonaut, Alexander Skvortsov — a soccer fan
according to his NASA biography — was living on the space
laboratory during the
2010 World Cup with Caldwell-Dyson, and he is up in space
again for this year's matches.

Skvortsov, Wiseman, Gerst and Swanson are joined on the station
by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Maxim Suraev, rounding
out the station's Expedition 40 crew.

The $100 billion orbiting outpost has been continuously occupied
by rotating international crews since 2000. Five different space
agencies representing 15 countries helped build the station, and
construction started in 1998 when the first piece of the space
lab was launched to orbit.